More awareness on violence needs to be done, official says

MORE work needs to be done in addressing inequality and gender-based violence against women and girls in the Pacific, an official says.
Pacific Community human rights and social development division director Miles Young said women made up seven per cent of representatives in National Parliament in the region (compared to around 25 per cent globally) with Samoa being the only country in the region with a woman at the helm of government.
Young said rates of violence against women and girls in the Pacific continued to remain among the highest in the world.
He said in the area of economic opportunities, men outnumbered women by two to one in formal employment.
“In 2012, Pacific leaders issued a declaration expressing their concern that progress in the region towards gender equality was slow,” he said.
“The Pacific leaders’ gender equality declaration noted that women’s representation in Pacific legislatures remained the lowest in the world, that rates of violence against women in the region were unacceptably high and that economic opportunities for Pacific women remained limited.”
Young said through the declaration, regional leaders acknowledged that gender inequality was imposing a high personal, social and economic cost on Pacific people and nations.
He said improved gender equality would make a significant contribution to creating a prosperous, stable and secure Pacific for current and future generations.
The declaration concluded with leaders committing to work at national levels to progress gender equality through gender responsive government programmes and policies, decision-making, economic empowerment, ending violence against women and health and education.
Young said nine years on, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat had commenced a review of the gender equality declaration to evaluate its effectiveness, relevance, impact and sustainability in advancing the status of Pacific women and girls.
He said while there was progress, significant work remained to be done in three key areas – women’s leadership, violence against women and girls and economic opportunities for women.